Joseph Smith Sr.

Joseph Smith Sr. (12 July 1771-14 September 1840) was Presiding Patriarch of the LDS Church from 18 December 1833 to 14 September 1840 and the father of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.

Biography
Joseph Smith Sr. was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts in 1771, and he married Lucy Mack Smith in Tunbridge, Vermont, having eleven children with her. He worked as a farmer, teacher, and shopkeeper before moving with his family to Palmyra, New York in 1816; in 1818, he became a member of the Freemasons. Though a spiritual man, Smith showed little interest in organized religion, refusing to join Reverend Benjamin Stockton's Presbyterian congregation. However, in the late 1820s, Smith's son Joseph Smith began to tell his family about his discovery of golden plates containing the history of the Nephites, Lamanites, and the Native Americans. He had his father baptized on 6 April 1830, and he was happy to see his father baptized into "the true church of Jesus Christ." In January 1831, the Smiths moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and Smith served as Presiding Patriarch of the LDS Church from 1833 until his death in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1840.